Slovakia (Slovak:Slovensko), also known as the Slovak Republic (Slovak:Slovenská republika). The other half of the former Czechoslovakia. Less famous, formerly poorer and with less people (it has a rather low birth rate too), the Slovenská republika (Slovak Republic) became independent in 1993 in the Velvet Divorce. Linguistically and culturally, it is a western Slavic and central European country, just like Poland and The Czech Republic. It has a lot of mountains, with the Carpathians taking up much of the country. The Gerlach Peak in the alpine-like High Tatras (in the northern part of country) is the highest mountain of the entire Carpathians. The southern portions of the country have three lowlands of varying size (all of them a northern extension of the Danubian/Pannonian lowlands). They're Slovakia's main breadbasket.

The ethnic minorities mostly correspond to the nationalities of the surrounding countries, the biggest being the 8.5% of ethnic Hungarians in the south. Considering the fact that during the glory days of Austria-Hungary, a lot of Hungarians (especially their leadership) tried their best to pretend there was no such thing as a Slovak nation (or any Slavic nation, for that matter) within their territory, a lot of Slovaks aren't thrilled about having a bunch of them still living in Slovakia. The historical bad blood between both countries that started in the 19th century has led to various culture clashes over the years, with a recent highly-publicized law about the usage of the Slovak language getting eventually skewered by the EU. Thankfully, most of the population of modern day Hungary and Slovakia aren't and never were a bunch of militaristic nationalists like in former Yugoslavia.

The country's history during the 20th century

A collection of a number of different ethnicities (Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, Hungarians and Ukrainians), Czechoslovakia was first formed shortly before the end of World War I, between October 28 and 30, 1918, at a time when Austria-Hungary was already falling apart into a collection of new nation-states. Czechoslovakia's independence was solidified in the Treaty of Versailles and the hard-to-define Slovak-Hungarian border was settled according to then-existing statistics about the ethnicity of local populations. Between the wars, Czechoslovakia prospered and was perhaps the most consistently democratic of the new central European states, but its diversity also made it potentially vulnerable. The government didn't mistreat ethnic minorities, but was nevertheless suspicious of them, because Czechs and Slovaks only had a relatively narrow ethnic majority for their nation-state (Czech-born Germans being the third largest group back then, even larger than the entire Slovak population).

In an attempt to justify the Czech and Slovak majority and the country's independence, the government had to resort to the invention of an odd political idea known as "Czechoslovakism": The cultural and political oneness of Czechs and Slovaks. Unfortunately, this caused several problems, especially in later years, because the country wasn't federalized as was promised back in the days of World War I, and both ethnic groups still weren't fully equal in managing domestic politics and economy. Many Slovaks also felt cheated by the misuse of Czechoslovakism as a cheap excuse for glossing over unique issues and economic situations endemic to their part of the republic, and for not fulfilling the promise to give Slovakia more decentralized self-rule, as opposed to direct rule from Prague. As if this wasn't enough, Germans and Hungarians also wanted a bit more autonomy, also formerly promised at Versailles, but similarly not delivered. As World War I became a thing of the past, people in other European countries (like Britain) started to feel sorry for Czech Germans — who weren't maltreated but didn't have any political autonomy — but this sentiment was ultimately hijacked by Those Wacky Nazis and used as an excuse to gradually take control of the country.

In the aftermath of the war, the new government had revanchist feelings and made sure all ethnic Germans and Hungarians were deprived of citizenship and expelled or forcefully resettled en masse. Luckily, this sentiment quickly faded away, and ethnic Hungarians remained intact, but most of the German population moved to German-speaking countries.

And so, in 1989, as part of the Hole in Flag era, Czechoslovakia finally became a democracy again in the Velvet Revolution. Three years later, the two halves of the country separated in the "Velvet Divorce", with much of the national property (such as the Su-25 ground attack aircraft) being split 2:1 for the Czechs because of their larger population.

After the turbulent political era of The Nineties, modern Slovakia eventually became prosperous with a steadily growing economy. Of course, not everything is perfect, with various corruption scandals in politics on the local and national level still being a major problem, though recently the situation seems to be improving, with more uncompromising civic activism starting to influence Bratislava. The country has been a member of both The European Union and NATO since 2004. In January 2009 it replaced its previous monetary unit, the Slovak crown, and is now using the euro, unlike the Czech Republic.

A large part of Jaroslav Hašek's classic The Good Soldier Švejk is set in easternmost Slovakia (where the frontline of World War One went through several times). Notably, the chapter where the characters arrive in Humenné has Švejk trying to buy rum from a seller at the train station◊ and getting caught by lieutenant Dub. The existence of this and other side plots has led to Humenné becoming the unofficial "Švejk capital of Slovakia" and to the unveiling of Švejk's statue at the train station◊ as a minor tourist attraction.

Dragonheart : Various locations around the country double for early medieval Britain, with Spišský hrad representing the ruins of Camelot visited by Bowen and Draco late in the film.

Eragon: Seriously, what's with all the dragon movies being filmed here?

Nosferatu: Yep, one of the earliest and most famous vampire movies was filmed on Orava castle and in its vicinity in northern Slovakia in 1921.

Speaking of horror films, the 1999 historical horror Ravenous, despite its American-Mexican War setting, had the snowed-in scenery of the Tatras stand in for the Sierra Nevada range.

The Peacemaker: That 1997 thriller starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. In a humourous inversion toThe Living Daylights, scenes shot in Bratislava stand in (quite badly) for parts of Vienna... and Sarajevo !

Badass Bookworm: Milan Rastislav Štefánik, who was kind of a Renaissance Man (astronomer, photographer, soldier and later army pilot for the Third French Republic). During World War I, he also doubled as an Ambadassador for the Entente (particularly France). Considered one of the most important figures in modern Slovak history and one of the founding fathers of interwar Czechoslovakia. Ironically, he died in a plane crash in May 1919, en route to the newly independent country he helped establish (the mysterious nature of the crash gave birth to several conspiracy theories over the decades). Despite his scientific and political/diplomatic achievements, he was a hated figure during the Communist era (since he was a firm anti-communist). Most Slovaks regarded him highly in secret, and his public fame was successfully revived in post-communist Slovakia.

Commie Land: As a part of the "Fourth Republic" of Czechoslovakia from 1948-1989. It was a notably rich and developed East Block country (compared to, say, East Germany), but also had more dogmatic political leaders, even during perestroika (when compared to the rather liberal 1980s Hungary and Poland).

Lyrical Dissonance: The national anthem of Slovakia, Nad Tatrou sa Blýska ("Lightning over the Tatras"). Despite its badass-sounding melody, its lyrics are notably milder in tone — allegorically advocating courage, honesty and resolve in the face of adversity, hardships and doubts about self-confidence. The anthem was created in the 1840s, based in part on the melody of a central Slovak folk ballad called Kopala studienku, pozerala do nej.

Oop North: Not literally, but works as an analogy in the case of people from eastern Slovakia (who tend to share the same characterization and associated stereotypes in jokes with English Northerners).

Please Select New City Name/I Have Many Names: Bratislava only got its modern name after World War I and the creation of Czechoslovakia. Its traditional name was Prešporok (Slovak) / Pozsony (Hungarian) / Pressburg (German) — probably based on the oldest known one from the late 10th century, Brezalauspurc. During the Middle Ages, it was also occasionally referred to by the Latin name Istropolis ("Danube City"). "Bratislava" was chosen as the new name with the reasoning that it referred to a supposed early ruler of the area, a Czech-born nobleman called Břetislav. This assumption was proven false already by interwar historians, but the name just stuck (partly because it resembled the archaic Brezalauspurc name anyway). Also, one of the odder proposals for a new name after the war was Wilson City (after Woodrow Wilson, since he aided the creation of the successor states to Austria-Hungary).

Reign of Terror: Most of the second half of World War II for the ones persecuted by the puppet state, then cranked Up to Eleven during the last year of the war. And, after a few short years of relief, the terror started again in 1948 (when the communists took power) and lasted for most of The Fifties (though it calmed down by the end of that decade). To say that the 1940s and 1950s were not the most fortunate time for Slovakia would be theunderstatement of the century...

Vitriolic Best Buds: During the 19th and early 20th centuries, this was the relationship between Slovak and Hungarian politicians, thanks to the rise of European nationalism taking up firm roots in the Kingdom of Hungary as well. Today, this is largely a thing of the past, though you can still expect an occasional Cultural Posturing snipe between a Slovak and Hungarian politician (especially during the silly season).

The flag's white, blue and red colors are based on the pan-Slavic scheme; at the hoist side is the coat of arms, a red shield showing a white patriarchal cross, symbolizing Christianity, brought by Greek brothers and missionaries Cyril and Methodius, standing atop three blue mountains symbolizing the Tatra, Matra and Fatra mountain ranges.

The national coat of arms (first designed in the 1840s) is partly based on the royal Hungarian one, denoting the historical and cultural traditions shared with modern day Hungary. A pre-1840s version of it, with green hills instead of blue, was commonly used as the coat of arms of Upper Hungary, largely congruent with Slovakia's modern territory.

TV Tropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy